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Daily Archives: 03/21/2012

You know the best thing about trying a new race distance? Instant PR! Yeah it’s dodgey when the race is a unique distance so you don’t get a chance to race them as often, but I’ll take it anyway I can these days.

This weekend Rob and I will be running Chicago Shamrock Shuffle 8K for the first time. Nothing like squeezing 40,000 runners into major city streets with approximately 8 turns in a mere 4.971 miles. I know what you may be thinking. Why bother, won’t that be more mayhem than actual racing? Well yeah, but it’s Chicago! That’s reason enough in my book. And the insta-PR doesn’t hurt either. 😉

But I have to ask, ‘Why is the Shamrock Shuffle an 8K, and not just a 5 mile race?‘ I went through the participant guide online and found no answers. I googled….nothing….no wikipedia entry….grrr! It is interesting that googling 8K brings a lot of St. Patrick’s Day related results….coincidence? Hmm…

I hate searching out data, so I just bit the bullet and emailed the race organizers directly. With as much logistics they have going on preparing for this weekend’s race I’m sure they are thrilled to see someone bothering them with the history of the race. I will update this post if I get a response.

I’m not expecting any clock-busting pace, but I’m still racing. I need to wake my legs up and this is a great opportunity to work on that.